


Character Cards

by RemmyPapel



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Art, Artists, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Inquisitor Figures It Out, M/M, Post-Game, Pre-Tresspasser, Solas' Murals, mentions of Iron Bull/Trevelyan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 08:20:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5960560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemmyPapel/pseuds/RemmyPapel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something strange about Solas' murals. Trevelyan shares this with Cassandra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Cards

**Author's Note:**

> I have three inquisitors in my stories, and this one is about Nathaniel Trevelyan.
> 
> I always thought he would have a background of art, seeing as he's a noble. Also, the art thing really made me go "WHY HAS NO ONE NOTICED THIS? SOLAS, YOU OBVIOUS NERD." at everything, so I must vent using a proxy character, I guess.

Cassandra Pentaghast never though of Skyhold as quiet.

 

Ever since they first stepped in the castle, the hustle and bustle of several people's lives filled the walls as evidence of the Inquisition's members doing their part for the cause. Even after the Elder One was defeated, the noise never dissipated, though it changed into one of celebration instead of determination. Here, however, in this colorful rotunda, the castle was as silent as a grave, highlighting what was missing there.

 

"Cassandra? Is that you? Care to join me up here?" The voice, thick with a Free Marcher's accent, was unmistakable for anyone else's, and Cassandra knew that Nathaniel Trevelyan was up in the panelling before she even saw him.

 

"What are you doing there?" She asked him as she climed up the ladder. Trevelyan was sitting cross-legged and facing the wall, sketching paper on his lap, a charcoal pencil in one hand, and a set of paint beside him. "I would have thought that you and Iron Bull would be out slaying every dragon that ever stepped foot in Thedas."

 

"Oh please, you know we wouldn't let you miss out." Trevelyan answered, grinning at her. "Besides, there were bandits messing around at the Civil War recovery efforts in the Exalted Plains, so Cullen has the Chargers chasing them off. Otherwise, we *would* be out slaying dragons."

 

He looked away from her, his smile fading and his gaze going to the painting on the wall in front of them. Cassandra immediately knew that something was wrong. 

 

"You didn't answer my question, Inquisitor. Are you still sad about his departure?" She asked, and they both knew she wasn't talking about the Iron Bull. "You must know that he never meant to stay. It's too dangerous for him here, and I don't think he is ever going to learn to trust the Templars."

 

Trevelyan said nothing, still staring at the painting, his rough fingers stained black from rubbing the charcoal too much. After a while, his gaze turned to his sketching paper.

 

"Did you know that he was hiding something?" He muttered, finally. Cassandra raised her eyebrows at him.

 

"Hiding something? What do you mean?"

 

"Bull brought it up with me before. 'His fighting style is off. No mage ever uses their magic like that.' he told me. I didn't want to believe him at first, so, one night, I snuck into the rotunda when Solas wasn't here to prove Bull wrong. That was a mistake on my part." Trevelyan brought down his pencil to his paper and started to draw, though what it was he was drawing, Cassandra didn't know.

 

"As part of nobility, I studied to become a master in many different fields as I grew up. You did, too, right?" He asked as he looked at her. 

 

"I have, but I've long forgotten about it, ever since I joined the Seekers. I don't have time for such frivolity." She answered as she crossed her arms. She had no idea where he was going with this, but she'll be patient for him.

 

Trevelyan absebtmindedly nodded at her, going back to his drawing. "I wasn't good at studying, but I showed promise in the field of art particularly, so my tutor mostly had me studying art history and technical skills until I was proficient enough in it to be called an expert." 

 

He gestured at the painting in front of him. "And yet I didn't see this until I actually looked harder. These paintings, this style, it's a rare sight to behold. There are only a handful of pieces alive today that have this same style because it goes way back, even beyond Adraste and Tevinter, to the time of Arlathan and the Ancient Elves. No one known today knows how to paint in this method, not even most of the Dalish, and yet Solas has painted a whole wall with it based on my life." 

 

Cassandra was surprised by this, and it made her look back to the wall, marvelling at what she was seeing. Of course she thought that it was most unusual when she first saw it, but she didn't know before how privilaged she was just sitting before it. Trevelyan wasn't done.

 

"When I figured this out, I decided to look through his things, see if I can find an answer. I found nothing. Instead, I stole these." He pulled out a set of cards from beneath his sketching paper and gave it to her. Cassandra's breath was taken away when she saw what Solas made, which was a deck full of paintings of the Inner Circle.

 

"Oh, these are beautiful." She said, shuffling through them. She found her own, which was a painting of her on a steed, looking like the proud warrior that she was, of Iron Bull, which was a painting of him kissing whom she can assume to know (The reminder made her blush), and of Trevelyan as well, who was painted holding the Inquisitor's sword in one hand and a green, glowing flame in the other. As she kept shuffling through the cards, she reached the end, expecting a painting of Solas. And that was what she found, except that connected to him was a large, foreboding wolf with three red eyes. "What? What is this?"

 

"Another thing; when I studied elven art, I learned that elves liked to use animal imagrey in their paintings. However, they would never, ever include wolves in their paintings. That's because wolves symbolize one thing." Trevelyan reached out to tap the wolf on the card. "Fen'Harel. The evil trickster god of Elven lore."

 

Cassandra's eyes widened, and she turned her gaze to Trevelyan. "You can't be insinuating--! Inquisitor, you know that the elven gods are not real, that they are nothing but folktales! And even *if* they were real, it was a thousand years ago!"

 

"Yes, but Corypheus called himself a god as well, didn't he? And he was able to gain immortality. Maybe it's the same for them. Or for Solas, anyway." Trevelyan said, taking the Solas card from her to stare at it.

 

"Maybe he *is* a god, maybe he believed himself to be one, or maybe the Elven gods were never gods in the first place. That doesn't matter." A finger traced down the card. "What matters, to me anyway, was that he lied to me. My comrad, my brother-in-arms, my friend, one of the people I trust the most. He lied to my face about who he is and wouldn't bother to even say goodbye. Friendship makes people blind, I guess."

 

He looked up and gave the card back to Cassandra. "And yet, despite this betrayal, I feel no anger nor hatred, nor do I want to seek revenge and make him answer for his lies. Instead, I pray every night to the Maker that he keep him safe. Instead, I feel pain when I enter his room and look at his art because *I miss him*. I miss my *friend*."

 

Cassandra placed an arm around him and let him lay his head on her shoulder. From this vantage point, she could see his drawing, which was of Solas surrounded by stars. "I know. We know, Trevelyan. We miss him, too."

 

And they sat there together, beneath rare and precious art, mourning the loss of a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever written, both in this fandom and ever. I encourage any and all critisism, even if it's just a feeling of something being wrong. Thanks for reading! :D


End file.
